Harvard Business Review ON Knowledge Management Articles 4-6 Presented by Laila Haidar Undergraduate in Management Information Systems
Dec 13, 2015
Harvard Business ReviewON
Knowledge Management Articles 4-6
Presented by Laila HaidarUndergraduate in Management Information Systems
09-29-2005 2
Overview Teaching Smart People How to Learn
• Chris Argyris (Published May-June 1995)
Putting Your Company’s Whole Brain to Work• Dorothy Leonard and Susan Straus (Published July-August 1997)
How to Make Experience Your Company’s Best Teacher• Art Kleiner and George Roth (Published September-October 1997)
Occurring Themes My Critique Additional Information References
09-29-2005 3
Teaching Smart People How to Learn
Human behavior patterns block learning in an organization
Why well-educated professionals are prone to these patterns
How companies can improve the ability of their managers and employees to learn
09-29-2005 4
Teaching Smart People How to Learn
“Success in the market place increasingly depends on learning, yet most people don’t know how to
learn”
Learning Dilemma: Companies have difficulty addressing
this issue Some companies are not aware this
issue exists.
09-29-2005 5
Misunderstanding Learning
Two mistakes made in the effort of becoming a learning organization:
1. People define learning too narrowly as mere “Problem Solving”
2. The common assumption that getting people to learn is largely a matter of motivation
Teaching Smart People How to Learn
09-29-2005 6
Types of Learning
Single Loop Learning Double Loop Learning
A thermostat that automatically turns on the heat whenever the temperature in a room drop below 68°
A thermostat that could ask: “Why am I set at 68°?” and then explores whether or not some other temperature might more economically achieve the goal of heating the room.
Teaching Smart People How to Learn
09-29-2005 8
Behavior Theory
Espoused Theory: How people think they behave
Theory-in-use: How people actually behave
Teaching Smart People How to Learn
09-29-2005 9
Theory-in-use
Governing Values of theory-in-use:• To remain in control
• To maximize winning and minimize losing
• To be as rational as possible
The purpose of all these values is to avoid embarrassment or threat, feeling vulnerable or
incompetent
Teaching Smart People How to Learn
09-29-2005 10
Defensive Reasoning and the Doom Loop
Encourages individuals to keep private the premises, inferences, and conclusions that shape their behavior and to avoid testing them in a truly independent, objective fashion
Performance evaluations are tailor-made to push professionals into the doom loop
Teaching Smart People How to Learn
09-29-2005 12
Learning How to Reason Productively
Managers must become aware of their defensive reasoning and its results otherwise any change will just be a fad
Change must start at the top Connect the program to real business
problems Learning to reason productively can be
emotional, but the payoff is great
Teaching Smart People How to Learn
09-29-2005 13
Conclusion
Effective learning is the product of the way people reason about their own behavior
Companies need to make the ways managers and employees reason about their behavior a key focus of organizational learning and continuous improvement programs
Teaching Smart People How to Learn
09-29-2005 14
Putting Your Companies Whole Brain to Work
Managers can successfully foster innovation using different approaches of creative abrasion “Productive Process”
Different people have different thinking styles
Rules for working together to discipline the creative process
09-29-2005 15
Innovate or Fall Behind
How managers avoid personal disputes resulting from the creative process:
1. Comfortable Clone Syndrome: Coworkers share similar interest and training, everyone thinks alike
2. Unable to manage employees with a variety of thinking styles
Putting the Company’s Brain to Work
09-29-2005 16
How we think
Cognitive Differences Varying approaches to perceiving and
assimilating data, making decisions, solving problems, and relating to other people, these approaches are preferences
Every one has a preferred habit of thought that influences how they make decisions and interact with others
Putting Company’s Brain to Work
09-29-2005 17
Left Brain vs. Right Brain
AnalyticalLogicalSequential
IntuitiveValues-BasedNonlinear
Putting the Company’s Brain to Work
09-29-2005 18
Assessment Tools/ Diagnostic Instruments
All instruments agree on the following points: Preferences are neither inherently good nor
inherently bad Distinguishing preferences emerge early in our
lives, and strongly held ones tend to remain relatively stable through the years
We can learn to act outside our preferred styles Understanding others’ preferences helps people
communicate and collaborate
Putting the Company’s Brain to Work
09-29-2005 19
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator ®
Putting the Company’s Brain to Work
I = IntrovertE = Extravert
S = SensingN = Intuitive
T = ThinkF = Feeling
P = PerceivingJ = Judging
09-29-2005 21
How We Act
Understand Yourself• When you identify your style you will gain insight of
your preferences in thinking and communication
• Your style can repress the very creativity you seek from you employees
Forget the Golden Rule• Don’t treat people the way you want to be treated
• Tailor the communication to the receiver instead of the sender
Create Whole-Brained Teams
Putting the Company’s Brain to Work
09-29-2005 22
How We Act Continued
Look for the Ugly Duckling• Successful managers spend time getting members of
divers groups acknowledge their differences Manage the Creative Process
• Set common goals
• Make operation guide lines explicit
• Set up agendas ahead of time Depersonalize Conflict
• People who do not understand cognitive preferences tend to personalize conflict, avoid it, or both
Putting the Company’s Brain to Work
09-29-2005 23
Caveat Emptor “Buyer Beware”
Diagnostic instrument only measure one aspect of personality: preferences in thinking styles and communication
Preferences tend to be stable but life experience can affect them
Only trained individuals should administer diagnostic instruments
Putting the Company’s Brain to Work
09-29-2005 24
Conclusion
Today’s complex products demand integrating expertise of individuals who do not naturally understand one another
The intersection of different thought processes will drive innovation
Putting the Company’s Brain to Work
09-29-2005 25
How to Make Experience Your Company's Best Teacher
Discusses a tool called learning history
09-29-2005 26
Learning History
A written narrative of a company’s recent set of critical episodes Presented in two columns
Analysis and commentary by the learning historians (Trained outsiders and knowledgeable insiders)
Relevant events are described by people who took part in them, were affected by them, or observed them up close.
Experience is The Best Teacher
09-29-2005 27
Why Learning History Works
1. They Build Trust
2. It raises issues people would like to talk about but have not had the courage to discuses openly
3. Transfers knowledge from one part of the company to another
4. Builds a body of general knowledge about management
Experience is The Best Teacher
09-29-2005 28
Conclusion
Learning history is often commissioned to analyze one event, but their lessons often supersede it
Experience is the best teacher in both individual and organizational lives
Experience is The Best Teacher
09-29-2005 29
Occurring Themes
Managers and employees must learn to reason productively
Create a whole brain company
Experience is the best teacher
09-29-2005 30
My Critique
•The Publications are outdated•There has not been any experiments done on the learning history tool•No guarantee that these methods work
•Easy to Read •Many Examples
Pros Cons
09-29-2005 31
Additional Information
An Interview with Chris Arygris
Article about MBTI®
Creating a Learning History
09-29-2005 32
An Interview with Chris Arygris May 1999
Where are organizations now. And where are they headed with respect to learning?
“… In all fairness, there are Hr and training people who understand the difference between single and double loop learning. They say they haven’t been able to concentrate much on double loop learning and that they didn’t they had permission and enthusiasm from top management.”
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Additional Information
09-29-2005 34
Creating a Learning History March 1995
A new philosophy and approach to assessment is embodied in learning history work. At the Learning Center, we are very careful in using the word "assessment." We now write “learning histories.”
We include a learning historian as part of the team. The learning historian's job is to capture and tell the story. That is the language we use. It is amazing how this approach resolves a lot of psychological and emotional problems associated with assessment.
People don't want to be assessed. They want to share. They want others to know what they've done - not in a self-serving fashion, but so others know what worked, and what didn't work. They want their story told.
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Additional Information
09-29-2005 35
References
1. A chat with Chris Argyris. By: Abernathy, Donna J.. Training & Development, May99, Vol. 53 Issue 5, p80, 5p (Using the Universities Academic Search Premier)
2. AMA Adds Myers-Briggs Qualification Program To Portfolio, Will Launch New Conference. Lifelong Learning Market Report, 2/4/2005, Vol. 10 Issue 3, p1-2, 2p (Using the Universities Academic Search Premier)
3. http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=cache:QxhvNSQSV0EJ:https://dspace.mit.edu/retrieve/2285/SWP-3966-37617962.pdf+art+kleiner+george+roth